NARRATORS' POV
As the night went on into the day everyone was having no choice but to adapt to their new surroundings. No one slept a blink of sleep, they stayed pacing or rocking in a corner of their rooms consisting of a cot and bathroom. I thought they had a nightstand with a queen size bed, you must be saying and they do. Aria and Niall does. The rest, have cots and half baths. None of their cells looks like an actual room except for Niall's and Aria's. Their bed was the same size as Niall's from back at the hotel, their bathroom had a tub (with no curtain) toilet and sink, and their chair was very modern like. They only had such a room for the ' games ' purpose. But unlike the rest of the rooms, theirs was freezing. Too much AC for a room that never opens its door. Niall sat next to the door with his back against the wall and his arms on his propped up knees while Aria figuratively was frozen in her seat, she finally had a way to escape and it was through her mind.
"Eight, nine, ten! Ready or not here we come!" I grabbed Naomi's hand then we both started down the hall.
Our heads looked left and right as we were quiet with our feet but not our giggles as we looked for mommy and daddy with Timothy and Theodore. We checked all possible hideouts towards the back of the house so we made our way up front into the spacious living room and kitchen, Naomi tugs my han towards the stairs.
"Come on Aria lets check upstairs." Naomi suggested to me.
"We can't. Mommy said that they aren't up there. They could be in the living room." So I tugged her into the living room with our bare feet making a soft sound on the planked floor. We looked everywhere in the living room and there was still no sign of my parents I looked at Naomi with sadness but she only bit her small lip and walked us into the kitchen, after we checked the cabinets, under the sink, washer and dryer, and the trash can we came to the conclusion that we were alone and our parents lef us. I felt my sisser's hand shake within mine as my lip quivered and we turned away from the back door and faced the empty house.
"Where'd they go?" Naomi asked even though I hadn't a answer.
We whimpered as tears rolled over our round cheeks as we slowly walked back into the dining room, audible cries followed soon after until we heard footsteps and the missing four descended down the three steps into the living room. And somehow seeing them made us cry more.
"Why are you crying?" My dad frowned his lips as he picked me up and sat me on his hip, mommy doing the same wit Nia.
"You guys were gone, you lef us." I replied to him, pouting my bottom lip.
He smiled in sadness as he began wiping me cheeks. "We--"
But before I hear him the doorbell rang and daddy's arm tenses under me.
"Dinners here!" I heard Theodore yell from the big front door.
Mommy sways Nia on her hip side to side. "How about we make it up to you with your favorite dinner?" She asked my sisser.
And just like that, Nia's lips stretched ear to ear. "Pitha (pizza)?!"
They took us out the living room as Theo brought in four pissa boxes, we were placed in our chairs immediately standing on our feet so we could see the pie when the cardboard opened. Extra cheese pissa steamed in all its glorious as we were served first.
"Aria and Naomi wait. It's still hot." Our mommy instructed.
When it was warm enough I picked it up using both hands to hold the slice way to big for my mouth then bit into it, pulling it away from my mouth wit strings of the yellow cheese in its trail.
"We all love you Aria and Nia." Timmy said as he looked across the table at us.
"That's right and we, NONE of us will ever leave you. Never." My daddy said beside me then him and mommy kissed us with their shiny lips from the pissa oil making us squeal.
~~~~
"Haha you can't catch me Naomi!" I teased.
"Aria, I'm coming for you!" Nia taunted as I heard her gaining on me.
"I'm gonna get you!" She grazed the back of my shoulder realization hitting me that she was close.
I picked up my pace, turning towards the giant tree in our backyard it's leaves crunching under our new boots called ' Ugly '. Or was it ' Uggs '? It may have been then second one. I was intending to try and climb the trunk but when I was starting she tackled and jumped on my back making us both fall in a tiny pile of pretty, colorful leaves. We laughed controllably, finally grateful that our mom and dad got us these bubble coats to protect us from the nipping AUTUMN air. I learned that word just this week.
"Girls! Hot chocolate's ready!"
Nia gasped as she got off me and helped me to my feet then we both races back to the house straight into Tim's arms as he picked us up and closed the back door.
"You two look like Santa Claus with your rosy cheeks and nose." He told us while looking at our discolored faces.
My hand reached up to my cheeks and didn't notice that they were cold.
"We're not boys!" Naomi giggled and pressed her hands on Tim's cheeks.
"Well Mrs.Claus then."
We arrived in the living room and he started to take off our coats and shoes when Theo came in with a tray of mugs. As soon as he had our clothes we raced to Theodore's leg.
"Calm down or you'll make him spill it." Tim chuckled before going to the coat rack.
We bounced in anticipation as he slowly set the mugs in front of the crackling fireplace.
"Sit down and I'll give them to you." He negotiated and we plopped in front of the mugs without a second thought. Instead of mugs like them we had our new cups with straws attached and sipped at the warm chocolate while I looked at the fire in front of us.
"When's mommy coming back?" I mumbled against the straw.
"They should be back soon." Theodore smiled at me when I slightly perked at seeing my parents soon.
"What about your mommy? Where is she?" Naomi surprised us all by her question but I suddenly smiled, wanting to know the answer.
"Uh," Timmy nervously chuckled and looked at his brother.
"Our mother lives a long way from here."
"Where?" We instantly asked.
"Illinois."
I pursed my lips. I may not be in school yet but I know illynose isn't THAT far away.
"Are you gonna see her soon?" I asked, furrowing my eyebrows.
"Um, yes. Yes, soon." Tim said and suddenly my eyes started to sting.
Shock and fear took over his face as he reached for me. "Why are you crying?" He desperately asked.
"You're gonna leab us when you go. And you won't come back." Water rush down me cheeks as I began to pout in order to get them to stay with us.
He glanced down at it. "What makes you think I won't come back?" And he started to stroke me cheeks.
"It's your mommy, you don't want to leab your mommy."
Confused as to why Tim smiled at me, he resituates me on his knee. "Aria, I meant to say that we will visit our mom soo--"
"Mommy." I correct him.
"Our MOMMY soon but that doesn't mean we won't come back? We all could go see her or take you with us--"
"I get to see your mommy!?" I screeched excitedly making him chuckle.
"Focus Ari. We aren't leaving you guys, we CAN'T. Not now and not ever. Okay?"
DING, DONG.
Timothy and Theodre didn't trust us to be in front of the fire by ourselves so they hoisted us up and walked to the door.
"Daddy!" Was the first face I saw then I flattened my body to fall from Tim's grip.
"Kiddo's! I missed you all day." He balanced both me and my sister.
"Have you seen outside? It's snowing."
We both pouted and exchanged glances before looking back at him. "No it's not."
He rose his brows. "Yes it is."
"Is not." Nia says.
"It is." He walked into the kitchen and struggled to open the back door. And it looked as if someone was throwing flour off the ceiling, or that nasty stuff I drank when I was little. A gasp emitted from us both.
"See? It's--" But we jumped out his arms and ran out in the freezing weather, we held out our hands and watched as a speck fell on my palm.
"Girls get in the house without coats! William!" We heard mommy before we saw her ran towards us. We decided on a game of tag so we giggled and ran further away from her.
"Girls, listen to your mother." Then our dad joined the chase.
We ran around in a circle around the tree and behind the trash cans then when it was hopeless because we were lightening fast our body guards helped them. We all ran like chickens and my face either hurt from being to cold or smiling to hard and I couldn't feel my sock covered feet anymore, everyone had snow in their hair and on their clothes and me and Nia laughed harder upon seeing everyone's upset faces.
And his eyes said he wasn't lying or tricking me, that he will forever stay with me even after I'm as big as him. They told me that they all will stay and I would never have to deal with them leaving me alone. They told me they love me so much, endlessly was the word they used, and that they won't ever leave me. And I believed it with every Bulgarian bone in my body.
"Aria!"
Her eyes slowly came back to the present and looked up at Bradley as a cold tear impacted on her cheekbone. His brows furrowed upon looking at it when she started to take in her surroundings again but stopped short. Because near the ajar door--that's never opened since it closed the first time--was Niall standing behind a guard with a gun pointed at him.
"What's going on?" She looked back at Bradley, "What are you doing?"
He rose from his bent stature. "I came to pick you up."
"Why? And what does that have to do with Niall at gunpoint?"
"We won't use it if you corporate. I can't tell why I need you but I just need you to lets go." Bradley head nodded towards the door.
"Is that guard coming with us? I'm not leaving with him in here with that." Aria pointed at the two barrel weapon.
Bradley rolled his eyes at Aria's concern for the blonde. "He'll leave when we do."
She flickered her eyes from the gun to Niall then to Bradley before standing up and walking out the room with him on her tail. Her heels clicked loudly, haunting her of her family and the last memories she has of them. Whispers of their--once upon a time--happy voices slithered through her ears, behind her eyelids whenever she closed them was their smiles and every breath she took brought back memories because oddly, she was able to smell Mrs.Serrano's perfume and their cologne. Their whispers got so loud and so clear that her chest started to heave and sweat to bead her forehead. Those memories couldn't have possibly physically hurt to remember but it was like she hit her head on a rock for it throbbed now, a migraine and she started to walk uneasily in her shoes.
She shut her eyes tight but it only made their faces that more clearer to see and she felt her throat swell up. She knew what could stop her from feeling all this pain and she knew who could do it just by wrapping their arms around her but she didn't have him right now and she could never have Niall again. She hugged her arms to her body as they walked down the room temperature hallway thinking over every horrible memory she ever had the misfortune of making, she thought of how this abduction might end and who out of the 8 of them will be able to see the light of day again.
She deserves this.
So she thinks. She deserves to feel this excruciating pain of helplessness and loneliness, after all the pain she brought everyone. After she killed her family and hurt the men that care undoubtedly--yet stupidly in her opinion--for her she knows she deserves to feel pain. . . I don't even deserve to live, Aria thought. She destroys everything good that happens in her life and hurt others around her with their consequences, she couldn't feel its full impact until now.
It was unbearable.
"Why were you crying? What were you thinking about?" Bradley broke the loud silence Aria couldn't hear.
Her eyes flickered around her and she never answered. The evil whispers that she thought left when Zachary came back soaked into her skin and flowed in her veins encasing her heart in a black fog.
"Hey!"
Bradley's hand gripped Aria's bicep strongly and jerked her away from the wall she was about to walk straight into and spun her around to face him.
"Are you watching where your going? You nearly knocked yourself out on that wall!" He eyes searched her pained face then furrowed his brows.
"What are you thinking about?" Bradley asked her but again she didn't answer.
Her body had begun to shake violently and she started to mumble apologies as crystal clear tears fell down her cheeks.
"Aria!" Bradley shook her.
Her eyes snapped to him. "Just get it over with," She whispered having him release the two holds his hand had on her and stepped back "Just rid everyone of the problem that's me."
"I'm not going to hurt you, Aria."
Her moods changed drastically for her eyes narrowed and she squeezed her arms. "But you already have. That's why you brought me out here! To kill me!"
"We said you weren't going to be harmed." He kept up with that lie.
"But you're lying! You hurt me when you took us! You hurt me when you forced me to break up with Zachary! You hurt me when you used my feelings towards Niall to your advantage! You hurt me by forcing me to have a hand in not only hurting Zachary in one action but the man I lo--" Aria froze in the middle of her sentence and widened her eyes as her hand flew to cover her mouth.
Bradley, who didn't catch what she was say but had a hunch, narrowed his eyes and took a small step towards her. "What did you say?"
She forced her shocked wind pipes to rub together. "Nothing. I don't know why I said that." She fearfully whispered the last sentence.
But Bradley had a strong feeling of what that word was and though he knew it was inevitable it didn't stop his stomach from twisting in disgust and his muscles to tense in anger, so without thinking and waiting till they got to the room, he reached in his back pocket and pulled out the napkin. Pressing it on her mouth and nose and holding the back of her head to press it firmly on her and with a last tear, her eyes fluttered shut.
~
3 hours later when Bradley finished playing doll Aria started to awake from a haunting unconsciousness, her head was the first to move then her eyes and fingers. She blinked several times to adjust to the brightly lighted room then looked down at her body. . . clothed in a different outfit. A white heart-shaped top dress that stuck to her figure like a glove and stopped at mid thigh with black flats.
She hates flats.
She sat up on the hospital like bed and looked to the corner of her eye when her hair fell over her shoulder, she reached for it and pulled it to her sight looking as it glistened in the light and looked. . . smaller? The curl was smaller than the usual mediums she put in it. She felt at more of her hair in confusion but stopped when Bradley walked through the door and held it open.
"Time to go."
She frowned her facial features but slowly stood on her feet and slowly walked to him as he led her back to her ' cell '. The second the door opened Niall raced to it and against Aria's flinch to his first attempt to touch her he grabbed her wrist and tugged her body to his and away from the other in the room but Bradley was still disturbed by what Aria said so with a slam of the door, he left.
"Are you okay? What did he do?" Niall quickly asked and hastily scanned over her body, comprehending the fact of her new clothes.
She tried to pull from him, whispering, "I. . . don't know."
Niall looked up in her eyes. "You don't--"
"He drugged me. . . then," she shrugged slightly "I woke up and they were done."
She retreated her arm from Niall and met his eyes.
His brows furrowed above them before he hesitantly asked, "Well do you feel okay? Do you feel any different?"
She looked down and felt around without moving.
"Oddly I feel. . . cleaner."
"That's it?? Nothing else?"
"Nothing else." She answered sharply before stepping away from his cologne.
She walked back to the chair and sat down, hugging her arms to her body again. Niall tried ignored the feeling in his chest by Aria being so distant and turned towards the tray of food they brought in earlier.
"They bought you breakfast." For Niall already ate his tray.
Her eyes drifted to the tan tray that had a bagel, cream cheese, and a pouch of orange juice on it. Her stomach felt hollow and the plain bagel looked divine at the moment, but:
"Not hungry." She said in a hushed tone making Niall's shoulders to slump slightly.
"Aria you haven't eaten in over 12 hours, you need to eat."
"How do you know the time?" She looked up through her lashes at him and when she saw she wasn't getting an answer she ended the conversation.
"I'm not hungry." Then her eyes and head drifted back forward.
Now he even more worried about her. It was like she slipped into oblivion when Bradley showed up and now she's acting dead as ever; she's acting exactly how Naomi described her when she was ' depressed '. Niall would force her to eat but that would only push her further from the grip he once had on her tightly so hr didn't and it wasn't like the food was going anywhere, she could break from her stubbornness later and he'll be there with the tray--he'll feed her if that's what it takes--and the soothing comfort he knows she desperately needs. Basing on all the information she received in such a little time.
He hopes that she isn't acting this way because of him, because of his confession. He knew that she would react against the way he wanted but he didn't expect that she would fall back into the soldier state he used to want her in. Niall set the tray back next to the portrait of her family, her eyes following Niall and as he resigned to his seat on the foot of the abnormally soft bed. He couldn't help but make her see just how much she means to him, how much she has meant to him for awhile now. Not since they've known each other. . . but for a awhile now.
"I was effected by everyone knowing. . . what I did to you but not in a way that was probably assumed." Niall softly started in a voice that wouldn't flutter a feather.
The room went quiet and actual minutes past with him waiting for her to respond in any way. She was thinking of doing so but couldn't find anything to say about anything so she acknowledged him by glancing to the corner of her eye.
"I didn't want them to know and I was never planning on telling them because I was scared that they would take you from me." He continued when he saw her eye glance and she did nothing but listen.
"You were the only thing that pulled me from listening to the voice that told me the world was better off with people like you and by getting rid of that voice I saw the world different. . . in a good different and I didn't want to say goodbye to that world because you were the center of it.
"You were the medicine the doctors would of never prescribed me with and the drug I became infatuated with. Bradley told them of the horrible things I've done but left out the part where I changed, where I tried to change and tired to make amends with you. I wanted so badly to tell them that it won't happen again, that I would never hurt you again, but now I think that they won't believe me without a explanation on why and what could stop me from going back into that dark place in my head. . . so I think by telling you and stopping this drift you're putting between us they could see rather than hear the sole reason on why I wouldn't harm you.
". . .I can't think of hurting you. And even if I could my limbs wouldn't raise to carry out the action. You've got SO deep under my skin that by being near you, by touching you, all that measures in my head is what I feel about you and how much I love you. Since I've always been better at showing what I'm feeling than saying it I can't even be in breathing distance of you without feeling my affection overpower every sense and having to refrain myself from showing you how much I love you. That even seeing you drives me insane."
And at those last few words Aria turned slightly and squirmed in her seat uncomfortably and subconsciously at the hidden but clear meaning behind Niall's words.
Niall's eyes snapped to the reaction she gave but pursed his lips before looking away.
"Don't worry Aria. I wouldn't touch you like that if you don't want me to." He reassured.
"I was forced to love everything about you, inside and out. I was forced by myself. And I won't ever hurt you again. I can't stress that sentence long enough to get you to understand the magnitude in those words and just what they mean to me."
When he was done from not nearly pouring his heart out he prayed that it worked and got deep into Aria where she couldn't leave him. Where (if their there) her feelings for him would heighten to the extent of his (even though that's impossible). She never responded to him but she had a whole head full of thoughts. Niall stood up from the bed to walk to the top of it and sit near a pillow after he shifted and fluffed it.
It's those feelings that will lead to the end of you, Aria thought along with thousands of other things.
"You should lay down."
"I'm not tired." Aria instantly said without turning to him.
Niall sighed through his nose and looked at the back of her head. "It's been a long day and I know for a fact that you're tired so please don't deprive yourself of the thing we both know you like to do most."
But Aria couldn't risk getting that close to Niall knowing that if she did the tears she's trying to swallow will come back in full force, and she can't hurt Niall any further after hearing just how he feels. Because by being near him-- like he said-- is a tough thing to do and she doesn't want to give Niall any hope that she may rebuke on what she said a couple hours back.
"I'm. Not. Tired."
Niall faintly shook his head at how thick her shell is then a light bulb went off in his head.
"Well can you please come sit on the bed? That way you're near me while I sleep?" He knew that she wouldn't deny that request merely because she's Aria. But Niall was lying about him getting some sleep, he couldn't even think of doing that and putting Aria in a vulnerable state for anyone to just come in and take her.
And through some hesitation she frowned before hiding it and standing up from the chair, with her arms crossed over her chest she walked to the opposite side of the bed and sat. Niall bit back a smile when she slipped off the shoes then laid with her back facing him and she scooted to put as much distance as she could but he didn't mind as much, just seeing her relaxed and by him, unafraid of him, was good enough for now.
Niall knew she couldn't turn down a chance to sleep, it was the number one thing she loved. But coffee came first. And he knew Aria couldn't hide from the depths of sleep because before long tiny soft snores came from her nose and sounded through out the room. Niall didn't think of right or wrong at the time and just one of the many reasons he suggested to her to sleep so when he was certain that she was sleep he slightly laid down with a bit of his upper half on the wall behind the bed then touched Aria's hip and shoulder gently, pulling her towards him until she was facing him and her chest nudged his side from being so close. He put his arm under her head and rested it's hand on her stomach.
"I could watch you better this way." Niall mumbled as he stayed up, watching the distressed girl sleep.
*************
Till the next episode?!
#Aiall! I'm sorry, I know I said I wasn't going to say who I ship but Niall's feelings are so darn deep! Her broken heart is feeling so much things right now!! Keep in mind I said that matters of the heart are at play. Sorry if this chapter seemed rushed, I'm overly excited for Assassin. But I won't take out any important details in the next LAST chapters.
#Aiall #Aiall #Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall#Aiall!
Aiall? Yes?!
Zaria? Yes?!
ENJOY!